Robust Owners Gallery Please meet just a few of our satisfied customers: |
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Steve Sinner, Bettendorf, Iowa is a well known wood artist whose work is shown at prominent galleries and museums like the del Mano Gallery in California and the Museum of Arts and Design in New York. Starting with a whole log, Steve turns and hollows large vase forms with intricate and elaborate surface treatment. Steve chose an American Beauty with bed extension and Tilt-Away for his demanding pieces. |
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Phil Powell, Tennessee, was our very first Robust owner, shown here taking possession of Robust #2 (we kept #1 for ourself). That's Phil on the left. Phil's a retired art professor and a real pioneer. His long experience as a potter helps him exploit the power of a turned form. Phil chose the 25" American Beauty with the Tilt Away, selling a Stubby 750 to make room. Phil recently reported that he has completed his 2,000th piece on this lathe. |
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| Here's John Nicholson from Dane, Wisconsin with the very first Sweet 16. John is a good friend and former president of our local AAW chapter. Because John is close by, we had the pleasure of personally delivering this lathe to his very well equipped studio. John mentors many of our club's new members and his skill and good nature are the very best. |  |
David Nittmann is one of our very favorite wood artists. His basket illusion pieces and airbrush work set a standard many may aspire to, but few can equal. By a round-about set of circumstances, we delivered this lathe to David's studio in Boulder, Colorado that he shares with fellow woodturner Cindy Drozda. We experienced some mechanical difficulties during the delivery and David and Cindy were very gracious hosts while our delivery vehicle underwent repairs. Having customers like these make it all worthwhile. See more of their work here: |
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Bob Schmitt, Waverly, Ohio is the proud owner of this Robust 25" American Beauty with the optional 24" bed extension and Tilt Away. Like Phil Powell above, Bob took a chance when we were just getting started, and he is the second of our now long list of customers. When we asked Bob recently if he wanted to update his photo, he said: "I still feel that I couldn't have made a better choice than my Robust lathe!" |
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George Troy Hurlbert from rural Kansas is an experienced turner specializing in segmented bowls. A self-proclaimed wood lathe junkie, George purchased this early version of our Liberty lathe to fill out his already well equipped shop. George liked it so well when he got it that he published his own lathe review on WoodCentral.
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William Aulick from Cincinnati has this to say about his Sweet 16: William also wrote a pretty extensive review a few months after he got it home. Read it here: |
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Chris Hartley from Willis, Texas is the proud owner of this Robust lathe with all the bells and whistles. Chris spent a lot of time choosing just how he wanted this lathe set up, but you'd expect that from a fellow with years of experience serving us in the military, ministry and now the funeral and cemetery services industry. Chris is also a very active member of the Sawmill Creek woodturning forum. |
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This photo is of David Ellsworth turning in studio at his family cabin in Colorado. David is an authorized reseller and chose to purchase a Sweet 16 for his summer get-away. David is shown turning an extra long spindle for a bed-post, the other end of which is supported by a live center mounted to the wall ! David featured this picture in an article he wrote for American Woodturner. |
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| Ron Scott from Wanless, Manitoba Canada, is not our farthest north customer, as we do have a few machines in Alaska, but he's still pretty far up there. Ron is a retired museum curator and makes museum quality bowls and platters on his American Beauty. |  |
| Stan Wellborn is an AAW board member from Washington DC. Here's what he had to say in his club's newsletter: "This year I splurged on a Robust American Beauty – and I love it. I wanted a lathe that had bigger capacity, and the Robust has a 25-inch swing with a tilt-away tailstock and a sliding headstock. And, it operates at full torque down to very low speeds. The Robust is heavy and solid, and cleverly designed with turner ergonomics in mind…– and it literally has no deficiencies that I have found." |
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| Stuart Johnson from Texas is shown here on delivery day of his American Beauty. Stuart reports "...how great it is to turn on such a fine machine. I knew I was going to like it but I'm amazed at the difference it makes in even a 14 inch platter." |
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| Wayne Akerman is from northern Illinois so he and his son made the trip to our shop to pick up the Sweet 16 we built for him. Dealing with Wayne has been a treat and he keeps buying more toys for his lathe, like the curved rest you see here and a steady rest as well. Not long after Wayne got his lathe he sent us this note: "After a month I am yet more impressed and satisfied...a real pleasure to use the machine you have developed. Thank you." Thank you Wayne ! |
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Jack Harkins lives in the Chicago area. Jack is a pretty ambitious woodturner and a wooden sailboat aficionado as well. Here's what he had to say when he sent us this picture: |
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| Alan Miotke is another Chicago area turner. Alan picked up his lathe and wrote a nice article about the experience for the Chicago Woodturners newsletter, of which he is the editor. Here's what Alan had to say when he sent us this picture of his American Beauty and example of some of his fine segmented work: "The lathe continues to be everything I hoped for and more. I got more lathe than I planned to when I my search began, but I've always been a believer that you should get the best you can in tools. I'm glad that we had the opportunity to meet and see your facility. Hope business is doing well for you." |
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| Tom Hamilton is one of our local area turners. After getting frustrated with an import machine, he started to investigate higher quality machines. To Tom's suprise, after he had chose to go with a Sweet 16, he learned that Robust President, Brent English, was an old co-worker. We've enjoyed getting reacquainted with Tom and watching him grow as a woodturner. On one of the woodturning forums, Tom recently wrote: "Buy American. You can't go wrong buying a Robust lathe. I own a Robust Sweet 16 Long bed and couldn't be happier." |
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Roger Taft of Laguna Beach, California, with his new Sweet 16 lathe. Roger is a retired computer programmer now with more time (and still good health) to devote to gardening and woodturning. With Roger is neighbor Jim Chretien of EventMover who arranged the delivery of the lathe. In the lathe is a block of eucalyptus from a just-felled 100 foot tree on Jim’s property that was destined to fall on Roger’s house. Jim and Roger are both getting some big bowls. The S16 bed gap has already come in handy. |
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Charles Wearing, a retired pharmacist from New Glarus Wisconsin has this to say about his Liberty: |
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Michael Foster from Vermont is turning out some truly outstanding wood art. Here's what he has to say about his American Beauty: See Mikes work at: www.breezyhillturning.com |
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Bruce Lewellyn from California sent out this picture and email to some of his pals: Bruce has a great website too, check out his work in wood and stone here: http://brucelewellyn.com/ |
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Bob Foss from central Wisconsin has been wanting to make big platters for years. With the Robust Sweet 16 he can do just that. Here is a picture of Bob with a recently completed 26" Maple master piece. If you'd like to contact Bob, here is his email address: rfosss@aol.com |
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| Shintaro Nakajima was our second Japanese customer. The big earthquake happened during his build time, but luckily he was not affected. He sent us the first picture when the lathe first arrived. He sent us the second one after using it a while. A picture truly is worth a thousand words. |
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Wally Duchow is originally from Wisconsin, about an hour away from the Robust shop. He is retired and now lives in Arkansas. This is what Wally has to say about his Sweet 16: Here's the first item I turned on my new Sweet 16. It's a 29 3/4" platter. I wanted to do 30" but the board (it's a glue up of four pieces of walnut) just wasn't quite long enough for thirty inches. I'm sure enjoying the using the Sweet 16 to make Christmas presents this year. Since I'm 75 years old at the moment, as I told my turning club, "I hope to outlast the warranty". Thanks again for a wonderful piece of equipment. |
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